Rare waterspout grabs attention in Duluth

Duluth residents and visitors who happened to look out over Lake Superior just after 11 a.m. Thursday glimpsed an unusual sight: a waterspout roping its way toward Park Point. A waterspout, in simple terms, is a tornado over water. This one only lasted a few minutes, and there were no reports of damage.

Duluth residents and visitors who happened to look out over Lake Superior just after 11 a.m. Thursday glimpsed an unusual sight: a waterspout roping its way toward Park Point. A waterspout, in simple terms, is a tornado over water. This one only lasted a few minutes, and there were no reports of damage.

Visitors at Como Zoo in St. Paul can now meet Berlin, the polar bear rescued after flood waters devastated the Lake Superior Zoo in Duluth in June, WCCO reports. Two harbor seals from the Duluth zoo are also on display at Como.

Jessica Danielson, 30, is recovering from a very rare double organ transplant at Mayo Clinic. After more than six months of waiting, she received a new heart and liver on Monday. Doctors at Mayo told KARE 11 her lifesaving heart-liver transplant is only seen at the hospital about twice a year.

A 13-year-old Duluth who was underwater in Lake Superior for more than 30 minutes was clinging to life in a Duluth hospital late Monday after being rescued just off shore. Jeffrey Carlos Watson Jr. had been swimming with friends near an old concrete structure often called the cribs, or Uncle Harvey’s Mausoleum, just off Duluth’s Lakewalk waterfront trail. The “mausoleum” is a popular spot for teens on warm days. They climb the structure and then jump into Lake Superior.

The unveiling of a bronze statue of Duluth Tuskegee Airman Joe Gomer is about a month away. The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American soldier to break the color barrier and fly combat missions over Europe during World War II. Created by University of Wisconsin-Superior Visual Arts chairman Tim Clear, the life-size statue will show Gomer in his flight gear.

East winds off Lake Superior brought more than a foot of new snow to Duluth and the north shore. It fell on top of the foot or so that came last Wednesday, giving the region as much snow in a week as it had over the whole winter until then.

Hundreds of residents in the low-lying Fond du Lac area of Duluth still cannot return after massive flooding in northeastern Minnesota this week. Damage estimates are climbing and more rain is expected. Meanwhile, congressional lawmakers pledge federal support. And kids in Duluth opened a lemonade stand to raise money for the Lake Superior Zoo, which was hit hard by the floodwaters.